


Love is Easy

by doctorwatsonofhogwarts



Category: Video Blogging & YouTube RPF
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-17
Updated: 2013-02-17
Packaged: 2017-11-29 14:54:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/688225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doctorwatsonofhogwarts/pseuds/doctorwatsonofhogwarts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dan was convinced that love was difficult and complicated. Phil sets out to show him just how easy it is. A series of short stories of Phil and Dan’s relationship progressing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Cold

**Author's Note:**

> Original work posted on my [Tumblr](http://doctorwatsonofhogwarts.tumblr.com/post/38415588864/love-is-easy), now available on here too.

When Phil entered their shared apartment, Dan was in a cocoon of blankets on the sofa. Only his head was poking out from what seemed to be both his and Phil’s duvets as well as all the blankets they owned. His brown hair was slightly damp and still curly, while his face was curled in a look of annoyance. Phil noticed that it seemed a bit chilly in their apartment, which explained why Dan was so wrapped up.

“Hey, why is it so cold?” Phil asked, kicking off his shoes, but keeping his coat on.

“Boiler broke.” Dan grumbled.

“Did you call someone to get it fixed?”

“Yeah. Apparently no one can come today. The earliest one I got is tomorrow morning.” Dan replied. “Which is stupid. It’s not even that late.”

True, it was only around four o’clock. Phil has just came back from some late Christmas shopping, with it just being around the corner. All his presents were bought, but they had to stock up on some food that Tesco didn’t have. Phil placed the two bags of shopping on the counter to be dealt with later.

“Yeah, but with it being so close to Christmas a lot of people are on holiday or have a lot of work as it is.” Phil said. “It’s lucky that someone can come in tomorrow morning and not next week.”

“I don’t care. I’m cold.” Dan sniffled. Judging from his appearance, the boiler decided to break sometime during Dan’s shower and left him too annoyed to fix up his hair. “You’ll have to figure out what to do at night not to freeze, because I’m not giving any of these back.”

“I’ll just have to cuddle with you.” Phil replied easily. He sat himself down next to Dan on the sofa, pulling his laptop into his lap.

They’ve been together for a couple of months now. No one knew yet, as Dan felt extremely insecure about it. He worried about what would people say – their families, their friends and of course, the internet. On Dan’s side their relationship was more complicated than it should have been – he was over-thinking things, over-complicating things and feeling like other people are involved when in reality it was all just about the two of them. He worried about how society perceived them, what would people say of them being together.

Sometimes, Phil thought it cute. Dan cared about their relationship and didn’t want anything ruining it. However, that basic need turned into paranoia and deep feeling of worry pretty quickly. It made Dan doubt things that shouldn’t be doubted.

Dan pulled himself closer to Phil, which looked really funny as he was basically shuffling in the cocoon and falling face-first into Phil’s lap and incidentally, the laptop. The black haired boy let out a chuckle, helping his boyfriend to a comfortable position of leaning on his shoulder. Of course, Dan still didn’t feel like sharing some blankets.

“That’s fine with me.” He murmured, eyes flicking to the laptop screen. “Unless you get cold feet, you can get the fuck away from me then.”

Phil pouted, his blue eyes widening into an over-exaggerated pleading look. “But I want cuddles.”

“Tough. Cold feet, no cuddles.” Dan said, snuggling to Phil’s side. He looked over at the screen to see Phil open up Netflix. “Are you going to watch a movie?”

“No, we’re going to watch a movie.” Phil corrected. The two of them were quite busy for the past few days, with Christmas being close and a lot of projects needing finishing so now that they had a little time to just relax, he wanted to do something with Dan that didn’t require much effort or preparation, but was still enjoyable. “Does Netflix host ‘My Neighbour Totoro’? We haven’t watched that in a while.”

Dan laughed. “That again? Yeah I think it does. PJ still has the DVD, doesn’t he?” Phil nodded, PJ borrowed their DVD copy of ‘My Neighbour Totoro’ after his own copy got smashed and was yet to return it. Not that it mattered, they watched more movies straight off Netflix anyway.

“Found it!” Phil exclaimed triumphantly. He put the laptop on the coffee table it let it buffer for a while while he stood up – making Dan fall face-first onto the sofa.

“Hey, I was comfortable!”

“I’m making hot chocolate. Want to help?” Dan just sent him a look that clearly said ‘Are you kidding you want me to move from under the blankets out into this freezing cold fat chance love’. Shaking his head, Phil hopped into the kitchen and prepared two large mugs of steaming hot chocolate with whipped cream and those little cute marshmallows. At the sight of them, Dan licked his lips and gave Phil a loving kiss.

“You’re amazing.” He murmured, Pulling Phil onto the sofa so they both were laid comfortably enough to see the laptop screen, drink the hot chocolate and share the occasional kiss during the movie.

“That’s my name.”

“Really Phil? Lame, come on.” Dan groaned and chuckled, burying his head in Phil’s chest.

“It made you laugh.” Phil retorted, pulling Dan into another kiss. “You taste like chocolate and marshmallows.”

“No shit, I just had some.” Dan laughed, kissing back.

“Now come on, the movie’s about to start.” Phil laughed as Dan teased him by tracing his jaw with his lips.

“The movie will start when you press play. We’re a bit busy at the moment.”

Phil didn’t bother protesting. They spent a long time entangled with each other between the blankets, kissing and giggling when they managed to accidentally tickle the other. Sharing body heat, the warmth flushing their cheeks the colour of cherries. Those simple moments of content like that, Phil loved them. It truly showed that it was just the two of them and the emotions they held for one another.

Later on, both more warm and content than they were before, laid down to finally watch the movie. Hours later, they could be found cuddled up and asleep of the sofa.

Neither minded the fact that the boiler was broke, that there was no hot water or heating in the house. They were too busy stealing each other’s body heat to notice as the day progressed into the night.


	2. The Date

Dan was feeling jittery as for the first time in many years, he pulled his pants up. Today, Phil convinced him to go on a date with him. First one since they got together. After going out for a couple of months, the two of them didn't have proper take-me-out dates. It was always being holed up in their apartment, either in one of their beds or the sofa and watching a movie or something like that. It was never a dinner date, or going out in the pubic.

Dan was too scared of that.

He didn't want people getting in the way of his relationship, so he avoided it in public. He was scared of what would people think (although deep inside he knew that everyone that mattered would've been fine with it), as what if it caused a rift between him and Phil? He just didn't want to risk that.

I took great convincing and pleading puppy eyes combined with the quivering lip of doom for Dan to say yes. And even then, they were going on his rules. They were going to Pizza Hut (because, why not, he felt like having a pizza), it wasn't a formal thing and they wouldn't be too obvious that they were together. Dan was still scared.

He was dressed fairly normally, but he could tell that he was going on a date. There were those subtle differences between a Dan-going-out-with-friends outfit and a Dan-going-out-with-his-boyfriend outfit. His pants were pulled up, he was weaving a fairly normal shirt and his hair was more carefully straightened. He made sure that his socks matched, that his clothes were properly ironed and the amount of beauty products he used on his face screamed metro-sexual.

Dan’s hands were visibly shaking, although he tried to stop it as he heard Phil knocking on his bedroom door. “Dan, are you ready? We have to go.” Phil said through the door.

“Y-yeah, just a second.” With a final ‘It’ll be fine.’ chant in his head, he grabbed his coat, phone and wallet. Opening the door, he saw Phil there who too, cleaned up a little more than he usually would. Even if he didn’t though, Dan would still find him attractive and extremely so.

“Ready?” Phil seemed to be bouncing on his heels, a wide grin spread across his face. Dan only just realised just how much it meant to Phil. A stupid little date that wasn’t even proper – they were just going to pizza. To the outside world, they would be just two best friends deciding that cooking was overrated for one night. But no to Phil. To Phil, it meant a lot more than that. That didn’t make the sinking feeling in his stomach any better.

Dan nodded, slipping his coat on and his things in the pockets. His hands immediately went into his trouser pockets, which made his eyes flicker guiltily as he noticed Phil’s hesitant hand about to reach for his own before quickly backing away.

“Let’s go.” Dan muttered, taking the lead out of the apartment. It was only a short ten minute walk to Pizza Hut, which pleased Dan as that meant that he wouldn’t be out in the cold for too long. It was December and after freezing because of the boiler breaking two days ago, he has managed to gain a large dislike for anything cold or wintery.

 

Phil quickly caught up with him and by the time that they got out of the apartment building, he managed to make Dan forget his nervousness and both slipped into a comfortable atmosphere of jokes and fooling around. The smile hasn't left Dan’s face since it appeared. They didn't even notice when they reached Pizza Hut.

They were lead into a cosy corner of the place after the waitress recognised them from the internet and gave them a knowing smile. “I’m sure you don’t want to be disturbed by fans today.” The waitress, who’s name was Christine, said to them as she handed them the menus. The place where they sat was so cleverly angled that it would be difficult to recognise Dan or Phil without being fairly close. Dan was happy to hear it and grateful to Christine.

They ordered their pizza, which was the biggest one they had with the cheesy bites and a variety of toppings. All way through it, both YouTubers were making jokes and making poor Christine giggle so much her hand was shaking as she wrote down their order. Somehow she managed to tell them that she’ll bring their drinks soon and walked off, still shaking with laughter.

“Are you having fun?” Phil asked, smiling at Dan over his drink which Christine brought before promptly disappearing again.

“Yeah,” Dan replied. He really was. It was great to loosen up slightly and just fool around in public again. A breath of fresh air from constantly being sat in their apartment.

“That’s good.”

Their date progressed and both boys loosened up. No one disturbed them – they even got a few laughs from overhearing a rather loud conversation between some fans about how much they would love to meet them and not realising that they were sat in the same Pizza Hut. Any other day, Dan and Phil would’ve probably went up to say ‘hi’, but today was all about them. The fans could wait.

As they were walking back from Pizza Hut, Phil was almost glowing with happiness when Dan went to grab his hand. Of course, Dan did it automatically and without much though – when he noticed he froze up.

“Hey, look it’s fine.” Phil reassured him, squeezing his hand tightly. “No one is freaking out, see?”

Dan nodded, looking around. He still looked tense and his cheeks reddened, but he didn’t make a move to let go of Phil’s hand. Slowly, the tension disappeared and by the time they reached their apartment building, Dan was back to his happy self.

As Phil was about to open the door for them to get inside, Dan stopped and squeezed his hand. Phil turned his head and his shoulder was immediately grabbed by the other YouTuber to make him face him completely.

“Thank you for an amazing date,” Dan smiled, making Phil melt. “I really loved it.”

And with a kiss, just outside their apartment building, out on a busy street, Dan sealed the relationship he had with Phil. He would never let him go.


	3. The Departure

There were many things that Phil loved about Dan. Those small, simple things that just made him walk around grinning like an idiot for hours.

Phil loved waking up next to Dan. The latter was a very cuddly person in bed and he always ended up curled up against Phil, t-shirt riding up to show his belly and the brown haired head tucked under Phil’s chin. Dan was someone who sought comfort and warmth subconsciously during the night and Phil was happy to give it to him. Then, when Dan was slowly walking up, he made cute noises and if Phil tried to leave the bed before him, he couldn’t as Dan’s arms would sneak around his waist and refuse to let go.

Phil loved how Dan sang in the shower. He wasn’t the greatest, nor did he get the lyrics right all the time. However, it still amused Phil when he was making breakfast and he could hear Dan’s voice under the shower, tumbling over words and quickly switching to another melody when he forgot the lyrics.

Phil also loved the (sometimes odd) ideas that Dan came up with. Phil usually had the weirder ones, but he could never say no to anything Dan wanted to do. He never regretted it either – especially when the plan was messing about with people on Omegle, followed by playing Xbox with Dan getting bored at some point and the night ending with them making love on the living room floor, with the TV still playing.

Phil even learned to love the little things about Dan that would annoy anyone else – how he sometimes left stuff lying about or how he forgot to do the shopping. How he sometimes slept through the day and drank all the coffee (and forgot to tell Phil that he did).

When Phil woke up early on the Sunday before Christmas, Dan’s side of the bed was cold and empty already and the smell of coffee filled the apartment. Phil was momentarily confused as to why Dan would wake up early on a Sunday morning, when he remembered that both of them would be going away to see their respective families for Christmas later that day. His heart sunk at the thought of not seeing Dan for a prolonged period of time – even though it happened every year since they started to live together.

But it was their first Christmas as a couple, of course it would start to bother him. Phil missed Dan and the things he did after a couple of hours of not being in contact with him, never mind a couple of days. When he told Dan about it, the other boy just laughed it off and said that the time would pass quickly and before he would even notice, both would be home again.

Phil managed to roll out of bed, but didn’t bother getting dressed. With the quilt wrapped around him, he shuffled into the kitchen where Dan sat with his laptop and two cups of steaming hot coffee. He didn’t notice when Phil walked in, so the black haired boy walked up behind him and wrapped his arms and the quilt around him.

“Morning.” Murmured Phil, kissing Dan on the cheek. He was handed a cup of coffee, which he smiled at in appreciation. “Thank you.”

“You’re cheerful today.” Dan commented as he browsed Twitter.

“Hmm,” Phil agreed. “What time is it?”

“Ten past nine.”

“I have to leave in two hours.” Phil noted. His cheerfulness disappearing almost immediately.

Dan, noticing that, kissed Phil to reassure him. “It will be fine.” He said. “We’ll see each other just after New Year’s.”

“Too long.” Phil said. “I’m going to miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too.” Dan replied. He stood from his chair and wrapped his arms around Phil. “But you’re being a child.”

“I’ll be a child if it makes you stay.” Phil said stubbornly.

“You’re the one going further than me.” The brown haired YouTuber pointed out.

“Doesn't matter.” Phil replied. “I wish we got snowed in.”

Dan sighed, not bothering to argue any more. He too would miss Phil greatly, but he also wanted to go see his family. Phil was probably the same – he cared a lot about his family. He couldn’t stop talking about the visit, until he realised that Dan wouldn’t be there.

“We’ve got to go.” Dan said. “I promise to call you?”

“You would do that anyway. Or I would. And I know.” Phil sighed. “I need to get ready. I haven’t packed yet.”

“You idiot.” Dan laughed. “Let me help you with that then.”

“What, the getting dressed part?” Phil joked.

“I meant the packing, but sure, if you want.” Dan replied just as Phil ran off to his room. Dan chased after him and ended up tackling him to the bed. The packing and getting dressed part could wait – especially the latter, he thought as he pinned the black haired boy to the bed and sealed his lips with his own.


	4. The Call

When Dan woke up on Christmas Day, he was aware that he wasn’t in his usual bed and it felt terribly empty and cold. He went through a similar feeling yesterday, but it wasn’t as prominent due to the early wake up call in order to get everything ready for Christmas kept him occupied. He did find some time to call Phil and have a short conversation – as the other boy was also swept into helping out his own family.

Rolling over to his other side, Dan grabbed his phone to see the time. It was eight in the morning and he wasn’t woken up yet, thankfully. He liked his sleep during Christmas, however he couldn’t get back to sleep because Phil wasn’t there. He knew that he sounded soppy and pathetic, but he couldn’t help it.

Eventually Dan stopped being soppy and feeling sorry for himself and strolled downstairs to open his presents. He spent the morning opening presents and fooling around with his family, followed by Christmas Dinner. It was all very nice and Dan loved it, especially messing about with his brother. And making a mess in the kitchen while making hot chocolate.

When it reached about five o’clock, Dan – dressed in his Christmas jumper and tinsel while playing Scrabble with his family, suddenly felt a pang in his his chest. After nearly a whole day of not thinking about it, his need to speak or see or both to Phil hit him like a train wreck. His mind gave him images of Phil having fun with his family, not thinking about him and being a soppy bastard like he was. Dan bet that Phil was not constantly thinking of calling him or walking to him in the cold as the trains and buses were closed for Christmas.

“Daniel, is something wrong?” His mum asked, concern clear in her voice.

“No – I – uh.” Dan stumbled over his words. “Ah – I need to make a call.”

He dashed from the living room like he was on fire, ran up the stairs and locked himself in his old room. Dan grabbed his mobile and dialled Phil’s number. His stomach was doing backflips as he heard the dial tone in his ear. He was about to hang up as he wasn’t answering, when it suddenly stopped.

“ _Hello?”_

“Phil,” Dan breathed. “Um, hi.”

Laugh.  _“Hey Dan, what’s up? Family driving you crazy already?”_

“No, it’s great. Just – I missed you.” Dan admitted, running a hand through his hair nervously.

“ _I missed you too.”_  Phil’s voice said through the phone.  _“It’s only a couple more days Dan.”_

“You were the one refusing to go the other day.”

“ _I’ve grown up since then.”_

“Liar.”

“ _Oh no, you got me.”_  Laughter again.

“I want to see you.” Dan said. “I want to hug you and fucking hell Phil I’ll  _walk_ to Manchester if I have to –”

“ _Dan –“_

“And I don’t care what my family says, I’ll tell them exactly why I’m leaving and walking to yours and why I was spacing out all the way through Christmas Dinner and why I started at the tinsels like they were the most interesting thing in the world and – and damn it Phil, I  _need_  to see you so don’t try stopping me –“ He rambled, now pacing around his room and flailing his arms around.

“ _DAN!”_  Phil shouted. Immediately, Dan shut up and froze in one place. _“I was about to say, if you want, we can go home early. I’m sure our parents wouldn’t mind.”_

“Really?” Dan asked, not believing it. “You would do that for me?”

“ _You’re forgetting that I was the one who wouldn’t let us leave and made myself almost miss the train because I was busy having a face battle with you.”_

“You’re amazing.”

“ _That’s my name. Trains start again on the 27th, don’t they? I’m sure we can survive until then.”_

“Yeah, I’m going to book the tickets tonight.” Dan replied. “Phil, I can’t wait to see you.”

“ _Same here, Dan. I’ll call you tomorrow, okay? I have to tell the family that I’m leaving early.”_

“Yeah, bye Phil. I -”  _I love you._  He wanted to say. But he didn’t – the words couldn’t come out of his mouth. “B-bye.”

He hung up after he heard Phil’s reply. The phone landed on his bed as he threw it while turning and walking out of the room. It took him less than thirty seconds to go downstairs and stand in the doorway of the living room.

“Family,” He announced, his voice gaining a self-important quality. “I am gay and together with Phil and shall be departing early this year to spend time with him.”

He expected many reactions. Mostly ‘What?!’ and ‘Since when?!’ and ‘You’re not actually gay, are you?’. But, Daniel Howell was not prepared for this.

“Okay.” His mother said. “Have a good time dear. Do you want me to save you and Phil some gingerbread men biscuits?”

“What – what – but?” Dan stuttered. “Aren’t you mad? Or surprised at least?”

“We sort of always knew that you and Phil were going to happen.” Dan’s dad said, putting some scrabble on the board. “We do watch your videos, you know.”

“And we’re happy that you found someone. Your luck with girls was never good dear.” His mum continued. “I still remember the disaster that Samantha was.”

“You mean Psycho Sam?” Dan’s brother butted in, walking in from the kitchen. “Has Dan finally outed himself?”

Dan groaned, falling onto the couch. “You guys are the worst.”

“Hey, at least we fully support your very gay and very obvious relationship with Phil.”

At that point, Dan threw a pillow at his brother. “Thanks a lot.” He muttered.

He spent the days until the 27th with a foot pretty much already out of the door. When he finally left for the train station quite early in the morning, Dan was pretty much jumping in his seat. He couldn’t wait to see Phil.

Dan ran into their shared apartment just after midday, with a plate of his mother’s gingerbread cookies in one hand and the other opening the door. Phil was just putting his bags down – he too, just arrived, when he got tackled to the ground by an over-enthusiastic Daniel.

“Hey there.” Dan grinned sheepishly, seeing the surprised look on Phil’s face.

“Merry late Christmas Daniel.”

“Merry late Christmas Phillip.” Dan replied. “My family know about us.”

“Same here.” Phil replied. “Mine said that we were obvious. What did yours say?”

“Mum offered us gingerbread biscuits and brought up Psycho Sam.” Dan made a face. “But they pretty much said the same thing. It wasn’t as complicated or scary as I imagined it, the telling I’m gay thing.”

“Love is easy, Dan, I told you.” Phil pecked him on the lips.

“Yeah,” Dan grinned. “I still need some convincing about that.”

Dan would hardly leave Phil’s side for the next couple of days. He also managed to sleep in late for the first time since he left for Christmas and wouldn’t let Phil leave the bed early either.


	5. The Countdown

As they were eating lunch on December 31st, Phil was yet to tell Dan as to what he planned for the evening. He’s been hinting about it since both came back early from their parents’ a couple of days before and he even deleted his browsing history in order to prevent Dan from spoiling the surprise. Every time Dan tried to get any sort of information out of the other boy, Phil just smiled knowingly and pulled him into a rather distracting but not unwelcome snogging session.

“So, what are we doing later today?” Dan asked, again. He was trying to get the information out of Phil, again.

“We’re going out at around half past seven. It might take a while to get there because of the traffic since it’s New Year’s.” Phil replied, not looking up from his laptop.

“You never said where are we going?” asked Dan hopefully. Maybe it was his chance…

“Still not telling. You’re going to find out when we get there.”

Damn. Dan failed at finding out their destination, again. Sulking, he pushed himself lower into the arm chair and distracted himself with scrolling through Twitter.

They spent the next couple of hours being mindlessly bored, watching a couple of films and generally spending the day like it was any other. Dan eventually gave up asking and Phil was glad, the excitement was building up in him quickly and he wasn’t sure if he could keep their plans as a surprise for long enough. After all, Dan could be very convincing when he put his mind…and mouth, to it.

When time was nearing to half past seven in the evening, the two YouTubers started to get ready. Phil grabbed their Oyster cards, money and keys while Dan was quickly trying to fix his hair. When Phil noticed that the other boy was getting frustrated with it, he rolled his eyes and shoved a fluffly hat on top of it.

“No one’s going to see it.” Phil said, handing Dan his coat and scarf. Although there was no sign of snow out there, it was still rather cold and it would only get colder in the evening.

“But what if we’re inside? I’ll have to take my hat off. And I’ll have  _hat hair._ ” Dan grumbled.

“Trust me, no one’s going to see it.” Phil reassured him and pulled him away from the mirror before the other boy could say anything in return. He grabbed Dan’s hand with his own and pecked him on the cheek. “Ready?”

“For what? The apocalypse as 2012’s coming to an end? Not likely.” Dan said cheekily.

They ended up taking the tube to South Kensington, with Dan still being slightly clueless as to what they were doing there. It was just past eight o’clock and when Phil realised it, he said that they’re taking a detour due to being early.

Which is how Dan found himself in front of Raison d’Etre, a rather charming French café in South Kensington. Apparently it wasn’t usually open so late, but due to it being New Year’s Eve, the owner (called Matt, Phil claimed) decided to keep it open for people wanting to spend it outside of their homes. As the two young men walked in, the owner immediately ushered them towards a nice little table tucked away in the corner of the café and took their orders of coffee and some pastries. Pleasant lounge music was playing from the live band and a happy buzz of chatter from the other patrons made Raison d’Etre feel very comfortable and relaxing.

“How did you find this place?” Dan asked, taking a bite out of his croissant. “It’s amazing.”

“I ended up coming here for lunch with my parents when they were visiting and I was giving them a tour around London. When I realised we have some time before the actual attraction, I immediately remembered it.” Phil replied. “We’re lucky Matt decided to keep it open or you would miss out.”

“Yeah.” Dan agreed. “It would’ve been a shame.”

They chattered away for more or less an hour before Phil looked up at the clock and Dan swore his whole face just  _lit up._  Like literally, some fairy lights appeared under his skin and he was glowing in happiness. Dan was sent into a mad dash through the streets of Kensington, dragged by the hand by Phil who paid for their meal, said bye to the owner and pulled him to an unknown destination.

“Phil? Why are we going to a museum?” Dan asked whey they finally slowed down and he saw the familiar building of the National History Museum.

“We’re not going to the actual museum silly.” Phil replied, laughing. “You’ll see what I mean.”

And Dan saw what he meant soon enough.

As it was just past nine o’clock in the evening, the sky was dark. They were stood meters away from an ice rink which had the National History Museum building in the background. It was all lit by colourful fairy lights and the dim light coming from the building itself. Christmas trees were put up, sparking and shining with the metallic ornaments hanging on the lush green branches. People were bustling on and around the ice rink; smiling, laughing, skating and taking pictures. Not far from the ice rink, there was a bright, lit up carousel spinning around. It took Dan’s breath away as he saw the scene – it looked straight from a fairytale.

“Phil,” Dan gasped. “I –“

“Surprise Dan!” Phil grinned. “Now let’s get us some skates!”

“Phil as amazing as this looks,  _I can’t skate!_ ”

“Well, we have three hours to teach you then.” Phil said and Dan found himself being dragged away by Phil for the umpteenth time that day. Phil pulled out his phone and mouthed to Dan ‘ _reservations’_  as they skipped the queue.

Phil showed whatever was now on his phone to the people in the ticket office and they were sent to get their skates. “That was the queue for people who didn’t get their tickets online. Luckily we’re early so there was no queue for people with reservations.” Phil explained as he fumbled with his skates in an attempt to put them on.

“So that’s why you deleted your browsing history. You were getting tickets so we could skip the queue?” Dan mused.

“Yep, more time spent having fun.” Phil said.

Five minutes later, Phil was already standing comfortably on the ice rink and Dan wasn’t even close to comfortable. He was clutching the edge of the rink like his life depended on it (it  _did_ ) and had an expression of utter horror plastered on his face. His hat was skewed to the side, but he didn’t dare to let go of the barrier to adjust it on his head.

“Come on Dan, don’t be a scaredy-cat.” Phil taunted as he skated around Dan with ease. “It’s easy, you just have to try.” The black haired boy thought that it was just a beginner’s thing and he was just mildly scared. He was too, at first.

“You don’t understand Phil,  _if I let go I die._ ” So much for a fairyrale.

 _Okay, maybe mildly scared doesn’t cover it,_  Phil thought. “Daniel, come here.” Phil murmured, skating so he was quite close to the terrified boy. “Hold my hand.”

“ _Why?_ ”

“Just hold it, here.” Phil took hold of both of Dan’s hands. “I’ll lead you through it.”

He smiled reassuringly at Dan, who’s nails were now pretty much digging into the palms of Phil’s. He took no, or very little notice, and concentrated on helping Dan steady himself on ice. It took a while, but Dan loosened his grip on Phil (still refusing to let go) as the other boy lead him through the basics of skating. Eventually, Dan’s mood lightened up and he stopped being terrified of sure death on the ice rink and he actually enjoyed himself.

Phil could actually let go of Dan and they skated and messed about for hours. About half way through they took a break to go on the carousel, which was a great experience with a lot of ridiculous photos to prove it and spent some time in the balcony café overlooking the ice with mugs of hot chocolate in hand before returning to the rink.

Neither noticed where the time went. When Phil decided to skate in circles around a laughing and squeaking (at the same time) Dan, he stopped when he heard an announcement.

“Hello everyone! It’s fifteen minutes to midnight! Please gather round and take your complimentary champagne from the waiters as we wait for the count down to the New Year 2013!”

As if on cue, waiters holding dozens of glasses of champagne skated onto the ice rink and their colleges walked around the café and sitting areas. Phil moved over to take two glasses of champagne from a waiter near them and handed one to Dan. One hand holding the champagne, the other Dan’s hand. They smiled at each other lovingly and entwined their fingers tightly.

“Ladies and gentlemen! Two minutes to go!”

Something fell onto Dan’s nose. Confused, Dan looked up to see – rain? – no,  _snow_  falling from the sky. The hat wearing boy gaped. “Phil –  _Phil it’s snowing!_ ” He exclaimed in excitement. “It’s actually snowing!”

As the white fluff fell from the sky, more people noticed it around them. Dan was still in a daze, acting like he never saw snow before. Unlike everyone else, Phil only noticed the snow for about a second. His eyes were on Dan only, heart swelling with affection towards him.

“ _FIVE –“_

Dan stopped looking around, turning to look at Phil. Their eyes locked.

“ _FOUR –“_

Dan leaned in, the distance between them closing.

“ _THREE –“_

Their lips touched in a chaste kiss, which was full of meaning. It expressed their love, their friendship, their whole existence towards one another.

“ _TWO –“_

It showed their thoughts: that they couldn’t live without having the other in their life.

“ _ONE –“_

It just wasn’t possible.  _I love you,_ Dan thought. He wanted to say it, he really wanted to let Phil know that he felt that way. He never said it before, those words never left his mouth. But he felt like she should say them now, or never.

“ _ZERO –“_

“I love you Phil.” Dan breathed out, his hat topped with snow, cheeks reddened and smile so sincere Phil wanted to jump him there and then.

“I love you too Dan.” He replied.

“HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013!”

They grinned and drank their champagne. “Happy New Year. Hope it’s a good one.” Phil said.

“Yeah,” Dan agreed as Phil wrapped his arm around his waist to steady him on the ice. “It definitely will.”


End file.
